Thursday, November 8, 2012

My Favorite Christmas Traditions Series: Hot Cocoa Movie Nights

I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS. It is by far my favorite holiday of the year, and thus, my favorite celebration. I just realized that we are only 47 days away from Christmas! So what better time to begin a Christmas Traditions Series? In my family, Christmas traditions are sacred to me. They create lasting memories and a wonderful feeling of excitement in our home from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day. I look at it as a legacy of mine, hoping that my children will pass on the traditions, or at least the spirit of them, to my future grand-babies; you're welcome, future grand-babies. So I'm happy to share some of my family's favorite traditions and recipes with you over the course of this 10-part series (yeah, I have a lot of traditions...).
Let me start with the simplest of traditions: Hot Cocoa Movie Nights. From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas, we sit in our living room each evening with a cup of hot cocoa in cute Christmas mugs that we each pick out. A few nights a week, we take this time to watch one of the many Christmas movies like Mickey's Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Small One, Charlie Brown Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. On nights I have something else planned, it's still very easy to include a nice cup of hot chocolate. I've always used a store-bought variety of cocoa mixes, but this year, I think I'll try making my own mix with this recipe and when I have some extra prep time, this amazing recipe.

There is something so cozy and comforting to sit together as a family and enjoy a nice warm cup of hot cocoa. My kids love this tradition not only because of the hot chocolate, but because they know that each day, we are celebrating Christmas in one way or another, even if it's something as simple as enjoying a cup of hot chocolate together.

I'd love to hear of some of your family Christmas Traditions. Feel free to share them or provide a link in the comments below. :)

Hi Athena: Another Athena here :) (Are we multiplying like jack rabbits? Hardly, although there are tons of us if you visit Greece!) So nice to read about your Christmas movie night tradition--that sounds like fun. We are not always but sometimes out performing over the holidays (my hubby and I sing) so I just really enjoy having time at home, and we will also pick a fun movie to watch and have something nice to eat. It was lovely to hear from you over at my blog, and glad that you want to try making potato chips from scratch. It's a little bit of a project any time you deep fry foods, but they tasted really good I thought :)

Hi Athena! I love the tradition, particularly the importance placed on selecting your own, special mugs. ♥I'd like to invite you to join me at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week if you can make it. http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/11/clever-chicks-blog-hop-7-country-craft.html

Hi Athena. The last thing on my favourite things to do at Christmas time is have a hot drink being here in Australia but I definitely do love Christmas and its my favourite time. Make it a nice cool drink. LOL Great to see you again. Thanks so much for linking up at Thriving on Thursday.

Athena,I love family traditions too. We have a few from making holiday cookies to my favorite which is hot chocolate or coffee and driving around the neighborhoods to see all the Christmas lights. We also watch Christmas Vacation every year and it never gets old (of course my kids are late teens) Thanks so much for linking up to Creative Thursday. Can’t wait to see what you share this week! Have a wonderful week.Michelle